During the 19th century, the main topic of conflict was slavery. Slavery was outlawed in the North and an institution in the South. Eventually this conflict escalated to much more than just an argument but to a war, The Civil War. Although Northerner's attitude towards slavery was valid and eventually prevailed, the Southern supporters had many good arguments to preserve slavery. .
Slavery was not a necessary evil, but a positive good. John C. Calhoun argued this point and many Southern plantation owners supported it. The main argument these plantation owners professed was that slavery helped out America's economy, so it can't be bad. There is no natural law to give anyone their freedom, and an attack on slavery would simply be an attack on the union. Some other individuals like Thomas R. Dew, had a lot more complex arguments. Dew thought that emancipation with out deportation of the slaves was impossible. Deportation was simply too expensive and would only make the nations economy collapse. He thought, why change something that is helping the nation, just so it can destroy it. Also, many Southerners claimed that what they were doing to the slaves was not nearly as bad as what the Northerners were doing to the poor immigrants that worked all day for next to nothing. At least the slave owners provided the slaves with food, clothing and shelter. The legal tenet that they claimed was that getting rid of slavery would be unconstitutional. Nowhere in any of the Articles does it say that the government has the right to interfere with this issue. .
The bible provided another collection of strong points of view. Many religious southerners claimed that the bible argues the natural order of things, and the slaves just happen to be on the bottom. In Leviticus, the bible clearly defines slavery as a part of the divine order; for example, it states that one can own slaves, provided that they are bought. So if God, the almighty ruler and savoir, condones slavery, then so should all of his followers.
